Poinsettia- Winter

Q: Last spring I planted my Christmas poinsettia in my back yard. It grew and thrived all summer long. Do you know of a way to keep it alive through the winter without pulling it up?

A: If you can keep it from freezing you can keep it alive…but that will be hard to accomplish!The best way to grow a large poinsettia is to plant it in a fourteen inch wide clay pot after the last frost of spring. Plunge the pot into the ground so just the lip is showing. Water whenever it looks wilty and fertilize monthly. By October it will be huge and you can lift the pot to bring it indoors. If you want it to change color for Christmas, give it ten hours of bright light and fourteen hours of complete darkness each day between October 1 and mid-November.